1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to alarms and warning devices, and more particularly to a visual alert for placement on free-range animals.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many areas of open range land still exist in many parts of the world. In many of these areas domesticated livestock is free to roam about the land, and the owners of the livestock periodically round the animals up as needed for care or for transport to a different range or to market, etc. Such open-range animals are primarily cattle in the USA, but other animal species, e.g., camels in the Middle East, are also allowed to roam freely over such open range land.
Such free-range or open-range lands often extend across public right of ways, such as roads and highways, and the shoulders of such roads are often left unfenced due to the expense of fencing miles of roadway along both sides, and also to preserve the open rangeland and the ability of animals (both wild and domestic) to roam freely across the entire range. While most domestic animals will rest at night, some will nevertheless continue to roam and may wander across a public roadway that crosses through open rangeland. Most such large domesticated animals that may roam over open rangeland tend to be dark in color, or at least some neutral color, and are generally difficult to see at night. Of course, there is no artificial lighting (street lights, etc.) provided in such areas due to the relatively light traffic and the long distances over which such roads and highways extend.
While the headlights of a motor vehicle should provide sufficient illumination to see such an animal if the vehicle is traveling at a reasonable speed, animals are well known to move directly into the path of a motor vehicle with no notice from a position outside the area of illumination provided by the lights of the vehicle. These animals weigh several hundred pounds or more when mature. A collision with such an animal may result in serious injury or death to the occupants of the motor vehicle, as well as to the animal. Aside from whatever responsibility the owner of the animal may have in such an accident, the life and financial worth of a valuable animal is also lost when such an accident occurs.
While various collars, harnesses, etc. with active or passive lighting have been developed for smaller domestic animals, such as household pets, most attachments for larger domesticated animals, such as cattle and the like, have been directed more to identification means for the animal to facilitate positive identification by the owner during roundup or other times when needed. Such identification means for large domestic animals (e.g., branding, ear tags, embedded microchips, etc.) does nothing to increase the visibility of the animal, either during daylight hours or during periods of darkness or low visibility.
Thus, a visual alert for placement on free-range animals solving the aforementioned problems is desired.